One Hot Mess

First, what the heck is this book even about?

SILVER KISS - Urban Wolf Book One

Ayla Hammond has come home.

After years as a lone wolf in a self-imposed exile she's rejoining the pack and trying to mend fences with her parents. She's convinced them to accept her girlfriend, but can a lone wolf change her ways?

As if homecoming wasn't hard enough, Ayla also can't help getting involved in a missing person case. With pressure to solve the case mounting from the pack alphas, Ayla is starting to question where her loyalties lie - and if a return to the pack she left behind is really what she wants.

Available March 1st 2010.

Leading up the release of SILVER KISS, there's going to be all kinds of shenanigans. There'll be a blog tour, starting at Bitten by Books on February 22nd. There'll be tarot readings, the chance to name a character in BAD DOGS, signed copies of SILVER KISS, extra prizes from QueeredFiction's anthology backlist, and much, much more!

I'm also having a Twitter release party on March 1st, so if you'd like to join in with that, just come and follow me Twitter.



And hey, if you want to help spread the word via these images - well, there may be a prize in it for you, too.

Next - as part of the SILVER KISS promo storm, maybe you'd like to go and sign the petition to Save the Werewolves? Because if we don't, who will?




There's more information about all of this right here at QueeredFiction, including the first chapter of SILVER KISS, so be sure to check out. Go now!

Since Wild is with my Fearless Agent and SILVER KISS is almost ready to step out into the big bad world, my mind has inevitably turned to the next project. (It's taken me like, a week to get over Wild. When I finished the rewrite I swore I'd never write anything again and everything could just go to hell because dammit, my arm really hurt. Still does, but anyway).

Anyway. There are a couple of certs - namely the two sequels to SILVER KISS. I'm undecided what order to do them in. Both will take Ayla and Shannon out of town. Probably Bad Dogs will be next since the events follow on quite closely from SILVER KISS. That's set Oop North. The third book is set in France and is currently called Moonstruck, but I'm edging towards changing that to something along the lines of Stone Touch. All will become clear eventually, I promise.

I've also got the sequel to AFTERLIFE, called Afterburn despite the indigestion connotations. That's not contracted, but Damnation Books did express an interest in seeing it, and I definitely want to write it.

I've been working on and off on a novella called Earthbound for a QueeredFiction anthology. The deadline is already gone (it passed whilst I was feverishly writing about junkie werewolves and homeless ghouls), but I'm going to finish it up and inquire anyway.

There's that zombie-military thing too. I'm currently reading Zombie CSU for research. There's also a YA idea floating around, although I've never written YA before so I'm not sure about that one.

And always, always, there's the rewrite of Scarlett's first novel. Sigh. Always. One day I will do it, I will make it awesome and it will take over the world. And then you'll all see *shakes fist skyward*

And all of this is why I need to escape this damnable dayjob.

I'm trying to write a bio for QueeredFiction. I don't know why I feel the need to provide a new one when there's a perfectly serviceable one on my website already, but I do. Possibly this is displacement activity, since if I'm writing a bio, I'm not doing Day Job Stuff. Always a good thing. The problem is, I can't think of anything to say about myself except "Naomi has a deep and unholy fascination with cephalopods, werewolves, and cocktails." Maybe that will do? Maybe I should make up a bunch of lies, like "Naomi travels in a pimped-out Mustang and always keeps a bottle of brandy and a flamethrower close at hand."

Anyway.

(I just copied and pasted the bio from my website, thinking I'd modify it accordingly, and have just deleted everything except the first line. Sigh).

Anyway.

I've also been pondering some more on the zombie/military UF. My ex-military heroine now has a name and a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (got to keep everything clean when you're a plague-bearer, you know). I really, really want to write this book. I just need to settle on a title. I fancied Living Dead Girl, until I read Elizabeth Scott's book of the same name (it's an awesome, heart-wrenching book, you should all read it), and now I feel I can't use that title. Then I thought of Better Off Dead, but that's a bit too generically UF. So, I'm pondering more. I plan to start work properly once the Institute closes for Christmas (other projects allowing), so I'm sure the perfect title will hit me by then. If not, I'll just call it The Incredible and True Tale of the Zombie Plague Bearer and Her Brave Struggle with Hair Loss and leave it at that

I'm back at work after my glorious, fun-filled, productive, Baileys-soaked week off. Sigh. I got loads done last week. I finished rewriting Wild and emailed it to an interested editor (fingers crossed, but shall not think about that too much). I made a start on the synopsis so I can sub it elsewhere too. I got cracking on the edits for AFTERLIFE. I had a short story accepted for an upcoming QueeredFiction anthology (okay, that wasn't exactly me being productive as all I had to do was read the email saying it had been accepted, but it counts, dammit). I went to a few local bookshops to ask about getting AFTERLIFE in stock, and now have some people to call regarding that.

I also managed to be fairly social - visited my parents and my grandparents, and spent Thursday night getting utterly and complete drunk with Kyle and chaostheory , which was fun and necessary.

All of which just reminded me once more that I want to be a full-time writer. Soon. (Not the family-visiting and the drinking. That was awesome, but doesn't contribute to my writing scheme). So yeah, back at work today, already missing the carefree days of yore when I could stay up until 5am playing Super Mario 3 and then sleep in until 12 noon and spend the day watching reruns of Mock the Week and Come Dine With Me write all day. I have hypernostalgia for last week.

A pretty big opportunity has come my way. I don't want to say much because it's all very much a long shot, but it means I need to whip Wild into shape, fast. For those who don't follow my obsessions religiously (you should, I'm fascinating), Wild is my epic tale of heroin addiction and werewolves in Liverpool. Or rather, it is now. Back in 2007 when I started writing it, it was an epic tale of heroin addiction and werewolves in America. I finished the first draft sometime in late '07/early '08, I think. It was a particulary difficult book to write because A) it's one of these gritty labours of love that breaks you in half and B) I was with The Ninja at the time, who you might remember as the clingy boyfriend who refused to believe I'd broken up with him and started hanging around my house in the middle of the night talking about the Mafia. Being with him was not conduicive to writing. At all.

So, once I'd finished the first draft (finally! After all the blood, sweat, and tears it bloody took), I emailed it, full of hope, to my now Ex-Agent. She was... lukewarm about it. Liked the writing, thought the plot was lacking. So I immediately began ripping the plot apart, throwing in some werewolf gang warfare and LSD-abuse for good measure. Then I grew incredibly disenchanted with my agent, my writing, and myself, decided I hated Wild and everything to do with it and never wanted to look at it again. So I wrote the first half of AFTERLIFE instead and pushed my junkie werewolves to one side.

And then I got my writers' group to look at it. They suggested I move the story to Liverpool and keep trying with it. So I started rewriting it again, got half way through, decided I hated it, everything to do with it and never wanted to look at it again, again. Then I finished writing AFTERLIFE, left my agent, decided my writing career was over anyway and seriously contemplated never writing anything ever again.

Then in 2009 some other stuff happened, like WOLF STRAP selling to QueeredFiction, and them contracting me for SILVER KISS and its sequels, and AFTERLIFE selling to Damnation Books, and suddenly I was feeling like, man! I'm not going to let Wild beat me! It may be the literary equivalent of a puddle of vomit that makes my headache just to think of it, but seriously! I'm going to damn well finish that book.

And then I didn't because some other stuff happened.

And then something else happened. Something I can't go into details about, but something with potential. Nothing I want to put too much hope in, but something that's sent me back to Wild like a ... I don't know, demented writing junkie masochist of some kind. Because I need to finish rewriting this book and making it as good as it can possibly be. This is always a problem for me - I never believe anything I do is good enough, but with Wild I want to try and do the story and characters justice. And I want to do it before next Monday.

I've got roughly 100 pages to go. Half the book is still set in America rather than Liverpool, and the first half of the plot has nothing to do with the second. One character is called Grady for 200 pages and Lennon for the next 100 or so. One character is a witch for the first twenty chapters and a werewolf for the next ten. It's a great, nasty sprawling mess. But I will tame it. Oh yes, I will tame it.

Stop everything! Seriously, stop. Listen to me.

I'm beyond excited to announce that QueeredFiction have contracted me for two more Ayla/Shannon novels to follow up SILVER KISS!

You heard me right - that's three Ayla/Shannon novels altogether, to be published over 2010 and 2011. That ringing you hear in your ears is the fading echoes of my thrilled screams of joy :D

I honestly can't tell you how pleased and proud I am. I loved writing SILVER KISS and exploring the characters and world more, I love writing about werewolves, and I love that I've now got the chance to write even more.

All I need now is a series title. Suggestions on a postcard, please...

Okay, so we all know I had a short story published in QueeredFiction's Queer Wolf anthology, right?

And we all know Wolf Strap has been getting some pretty good reviews, right?

And we all know I've been working on a novel-length follow-up to Wolf Strap called Silver Kiss, right?

Well, I am thrilled (and a little bit nervous) to announce that SILVER KISS HAS BEEN CONTRACTED BY QUEEREDFICTION! Which means I'm going to have a novel published! A whole, full, genuine novel all by myself etc!

Details are tentative at this point, but we're hoping SILVER KISS (yes, I will henceforth capitalise it all the time, sorry) will be released in early 2010.

This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened to me since I started writing, and I'm over the moon to have the opportunity to do this. So, virtual party at my place! Bring cocktails!

1. Finish first draft of the gothic horror short story. (It took a wrong turn and became a gothic romance, which has set its progress back somewhat).

2. Get the lawn mowed. Sounds simple, but the grass is knee high at the moment, so I'm drafting in my parents and Holly to help. Because cocker spaniels are awesome at gardening.

3. Get some serious work done on planning Silver Kiss, the Ayla and Shannon piece.

4. Ponder some more on Lone Wolf. I'm leaning towards rabies and super volcanoes at the moment.

5. Resolve all my personal problems in one fell swoop. (This probably won't happen. But you've got to aim high, right?)